Feature by Susan Rucci

What a difference a year can make, especially if you have a 401k or other investments in the stock market. Now that the Wall Street bubble has burst, what's an individual investor to do? A new batch of books sets out to prove that even in bad economic times, you can turn your stock portfolio, bank account or retirement fund around and rebound financially.Taming the BearTwo of the best books...

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Many years ago, a friend who was part of the team that helped construct the Internet gave me the best single piece of advice I have ever received about e-mail: Don't ever write anything in an e-mail that you wouldn't put up on a billboard in Times Square. With Send: The Essential Guide to Email for Office and Home, New York Times Op-Ed editor David Shipley and Will Schwalbe, editor-in-chief at...

Slices of the pie

What's retirement all about? How does one make it meaningful? These and other key questions are explored in Portfolio Life: The New Path to Work, Purpose and Passion After 50 written by David Corbett, founder and CEO of New Directions, Inc., a career services company for senior executives. In a portfolio life plan, the goal is to create a balance in five areas: work, learning, leisure, family...

Financing the dream home

Deciding to buy is just part of the process figuring out how to pay for property is the next step. That's where David Reed's Mortgages 101: Quick Answers to Over 250 Critical Questions About Your Home Loan comes in. It is an indispensable guide to answer any question imaginable when you're buying a home or other property. If you own your own business, have had credit trouble or just want to...

Needs for newlyweds

Feeling optimistic when I started my business studies back in 2001, I saved a copy of Smart Couples Finish Rich, and after getting engaged in April, I dusted off the book and dived in again. Money is the number one cause of divorce, but David Bach, author of the best-selling Smart Women Finish Rich, makes the taboo topic approachable. He debunks common money myths like this whopper if we love...

Coping with challenging times

All business books are how-to manuals in some sense, but our three picks this month are perfect for the times. If you're a CEO worried about customer service or an investor wanting to save what's left of your portfolio, here's some advice for the long haul.How to rescue your retirement The investors hardest hit by the Nasdaq nosedive were retirees who overdosed on stocks, says Wall Street...

Making a living and a life

The subtitle of Mark Henricks' new book is irresistible: The Complete Guide to Creating a Business that Gives You a Life. Isn't that what we all want? Sure, fabulous wealth would be nice, but experts agree that 90 percent of small business owners aren't hoping to become the next Bill Gates. Instead, Henricks says in Not Just a Living (Perseus, $25, 256 pages, ISBN 0738206652), most are...

Reading up on the right investments

When the markets crash, your nest egg goes splash and you wish you had cash, that's a bear market. Sadly, most investors spent the summer watching portfolios shrink and blue chips sink as money retreated from Wall Street. That, my friends, is the downside of investing.If you're in the market for the long term, here's what to do seek the advice of people, like the authors below, who've...

On the job training: what you need to know to get to the top

Whether you're a new graduate ready to start your first job or a seasoned professional, learning how to succeed in business can be costly both personally and professionally. Wherever you are on the ladder of success, here are four new books to help you learn the secrets for climbing to the top. Be a Kickass Assistant Heather Beckel writes from her experience as George Stephanopoulos'...